Archive for month: March, 2017

Partner up for today’s WOD, finding someone who will lift the same weight would be best. Partner 1 will sprint through this triplet, aiming to stay unbroken as long as possible. Once the last T2B rep is done, partner 2 jumps in and blasts through the same. Repeat this as many times as you can in the 16 minutes allowed.

After a 5 minute rest, lets take on the Grid League Instagram Challenge and sprint through a one round bout of burpee box jumps. Who will be the fastest?

With the Open behind us, it’s time to announce our next training cycle. Here at Thermal, CrossFit is about improving our health, increasing our overall fitness level and having a blast while doing it. While that will remain our focus no matter what types of workouts we do, it’s sometimes beneficial to add even more structure to our program. Looking at the strengths and weaknesses around our gym we’ve come up with an exciting eight week program called “Titan”. This new phase of training is designed to increase raw strength in the squat and press, while maintaining a high level of gymnastics proficiency and keeping our conditioning at its peak. Here are some details;

We’ll start the cycle by testing 1 rep maxes for both the front squat and strict press. We will then spend time each week focusing on those movements through working sets of various volume and percentages. For the next 8 weeks we will SQUAT EVERY MONDAY and we will PRESS EVERY THURSDAY. That is not to say that we won’t have constantly varied high intensity workouts 7 days per week – we will, but we must go into this phase knowing what to expect on dedicated strength training days. You will improve more across these movements by utilizing a structured weekly schedule of attack; PRs will be a result of increased strength over the course of the cycle as opposed to getting lucky in a daily WOD.

How do you get the most out of this phase? Show up on Monday’s and Thursday’s ready for strength. If you miss a day of the phase the Forge is available for make-up work. If you fall behind you will always be able to jump back in, as each day’s work will be percentage based. The only requirement is that you do take the time to find a 1RM, even if you miss it on April 3rd or April 6th.

On days other than Monday and Thursday, we’ll keep it constantly varied. Gymnastics work, long Met-cons, core, and Oly movements will be spread out through the rest of the week. We’ll also see the return of “Partner Saturday” as well as “Country Club” during the Titan phase.

We’re looking forward to you all getting stronger over the next 2 months; you’ll have the support of the coaching staff and each other the entire way. Let’s get strong, let’s have fun, and let’s move some weight!!

Not gonna lie, I am happy that the Open is over for a whole bunch of reasons:

Five weeks is a long time for me to sustain a level of excitement and enthusiasm for anything, much less athletic endeavors that test my weaknesses week after week. On the other hand, seeing our community come together every Saturday for five weeks to work hard, support hard and party hard makes for a set of experiences I can’t find anywhere else. I got to yell myself hoarse, cheer for people in the 6 AM class who I met for the first time, share mimosas and feel pride for myself, my coaches and my community. Given that, maybe I’m sorry to see the Open end after all …

Open workouts are hard and I couldn’t Rx them all (stupid pull-ups!) so I’m glad to go back to my routine. On the other hand, I did Rx 4 out of 5 WODs, and I put together 136 double-unders, something I never would have attempted in my normal routine. While I’m certainly not a double-under queen they don’t scare me any more and I’m looking forward to getting them to a point where they come naturally. Given that, maybe I’m sorry to see the Open end after all …

It does seem silly to do something for five weeks that, at the end of the day, is pretty meaningless. I certainly didn’t finish in the top 200 to get to the Master’s Qualifiers and the only way I’m going to the Games is to buy a ticket. On the other hand I did finish in the top 44% of my age group in the world and damn close to the top 30% in the region. Still doesn’t sound like much to brag about, but on the other hand, in 2016 I finished in the top 60% in the world and the top 66% in the region. I think I can consider that some serious progress and something of which I can be really proud. Given that, maybe I’m sorry to see the Open end after all …

To me the Open was a way to quantify my progress, identify gaps and weaknesses and set some goals for next year. It was also about watching people get their first bar muscle-ups or Rx a WOD for the first time or spend 39:54 finishing thrusters and double-unders or row their brains out just to get one more calorie. The Open was never just about me it was about the thrill that comes when we all come together to give our best, to ourselves and to each other.

Given all that, maybe I’m sorry to see the Open end after all …

http://www.crossfitthermal.com/wp-content/uploads/thermal_gradient_white-1.jpg00adminhttp://www.crossfitthermal.com/wp-content/uploads/thermal_gradient_white-1.jpgadmin2017-03-31 09:00:262017-03-31 09:00:26Looking Back On The 2017 Open - Reflections From Cindy Handler

We’ll start today with some accessory work. Alternate between L-sit holds and Push-ups for 8 minutes. For the L-Sit, use parallettes if possible, otherwise scale to hanging L-sits or v-ups. For the push-ups work on moving perfectly and getting full ROM, we’re not counting reps here, so make it about movement.

Our met-con today is an ascending ladder of double unders paired with 2 squat cleans each set. Climb as high as you can in 12 minutes. Your score today will simply be the last set of double unders you complete – no extra reps or CJs are added to your total.

Push Jerk work for today guys, lets get on the bar and hit 2 sets of 3 and 3 sets of 2, heavy, recording the heaviest set of 2 in WODIFY.

Scale weight as needed for the met-con, don’t underestimate squats that will get tough after a few reps. Your choice on bike/row option, just note the different calorie requirements for each piece of equipment.

Flipping things around for this WOD guys…We’ll start off with a sprint style conditioning piece, heavier power snatches and bar muscle ups. You should be doing quick singles on the power snatch unless you are RX’ing (and can still touch and go). Scale bar muscle-ups to jumping bar muscle ups 1:1 or c2b pull-ups 1:1 as needed and depending where you are in the bar muscle up progression.

After the met-con we’ll be hitting some timed accessory work, bicep curls and barbell roll-outs.

Let’s hit the engine today with a 20 minute AMRAP. Stay in place for the lunges counting each leg as each rep. Push yourself on the KB weight as we’ll be working with heavier loads than normal on this movement.

Start out by taking a few minutes to build to your needed overhead squat weight. You’ll be working with a partner for this strength EOMOTM (every other minute on the minute) so plan your plate loading accordingly. If you don’t have a true or close to a true 1RM OHS to derive your percentage from, use a manageable load for 5×5.

This workout begins with the barbell on the floor and the athlete standing tall. At the call of “3, 2, 1 … go,” the athlete will perform 9 thrusters, then 35 double-unders. They will repeat this couplet for a total of 10 rounds. During the workout, only the athlete may handle their equipment, and the rope must be set on the ground while the athlete is performing thrusters.

Every second counts in this workout. The athlete’s score will be the time it takes to complete all 440 repetitions. Time will be recorded in full seconds. Do not round up. If an athlete finishes in 15:40.8, their score is 15:40. There is a 40-minute time cap. If the athlete does not finish all 440 reps within the time cap, their score will be the number of reps completed. There is no tiebreaker for this workout.